Winter Holidays

Delivery performance in the first half of December may land many providers on the naughty list.

According to analysis of what more than 130,000 shoppers said in surveys about on-time deliveries of their full orders between Dec. 1 - Dec. 15 by Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity, time is not on their side.

Bizrate Insights data indicated on-time delivery rate went from 93.3% on Tuesday, Dec. 1 to 89.9% on Tuesday, Dec. 15. There were small day-over-day spikes in on-time delivery rate on Saturday, Dec. 5, Tuesday, Dec 8 and Friday Dec. 11.

Return fraud during the holidays is a growing problem for retailers—and also an extremely expensive one.

eBay has come up with a clever solution to help Americans solve a common dilemma: what to do about unwanted holiday gifts.

The online marketplace retailer will operate pop-up selling stations in three select Westfield shopping centers across the country during “Boxing Weekend” from Dec. 26 (Boxing Day) to Dec. 27. The stations will be located at Westfield San Francisco Centre, San Francisco; Westfield Garden State Plaza, Paramus, New Jersey; and Westfield Hawthorn Center, Vernon Hills, Illinois.

This holiday season, both laptop/desktop computers and mobile phones will play a critical role in the online path to purchase.

According to a new study of more than 1,000 U.S, consumers from online discount platform Ebates, more than half of Americans (53%) are choosing to use their laptops to shop this holiday season, followed by their home computer (39%) and their mobile phone (24%).

Chattanooga, Tenn. -- CBL & Associates Properties along with its corporate partner, Coca-Cola, are encouraging shoppers at CBL Malls across the country to get social this holiday season with an in-mall holiday promotion.

Mallgoers who need to see what’s happening at the North Pole before they believe in Santa Claus will have their doubts erased, thanks to J.C. Penney. According to Advertising Age, Penney is using Oculus virtual reality headsets in an immersive holiday promotional experience called “Twas the Flight before Christmas” at four select malls. Customers will be able to interact with a virtual “Santa’s Workshop” environment.

In the first part of December, delivery providers experienced difficulties that probably left some holiday shoppers less than merry.

According to analysis of what more than 130,000 shoppers said in surveys about on-time deliveries of their full orders between Dec. 1 - Dec. 10 by Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity, the timeliness trend is clearly downward.

Food Lion is launching an omnichannel coupon initiative that combines fun with savings.

Now through Jan. 1, customers can access digital coupons through the Shazam smartphone app while shopping in Food Lion stores. Food Lion has partnered with interactive marketing firm Mood Media Corp. on the campaign.